Did you know that running a search engine index server in Japan is illegal in Japan right now (as of June 2009)?
On 6/12 the amendment bill for the Japanese copyright law passed the Diet and in January 2010, the amendments will be put into effect. You can read the whole amendment documents here [ja].
There are several clauses, but the 2 big issues are "illegal download" and "search engine cache issue".
1) DOWNLOADING illegal contents will be ILLEGAL
UPLOADING illegal contents to the internet is illegal even now (and many people including Mr. Kaneko the creator of P2P software Winny had been arrested), but the new amendment will outlaw individuals who DOWNLOAD contents if they knew it is illegal contents.
There had been lots of debate on this topic- as this issue inherently has various problems such as "How do you prove you actually knew it was illegal?" "The way internet works is that if you are viewing some website, you are actually downloading it even if you are not pressing a download button or anything." There were strong oppositions against this bill, and I wrote last year about a Japanese Internet activist group MIAU and their activities against this bill. After a long debate, the way this ended up is that although downloading illegal contents is going to be illegal, there is no punishment clause on this (and that is why the efficacy of this law is questioned). Streaming is not covered in this bill, and just looking at illegal videos on YouTube and Nico Nico Douga will not be illegal either.
Chris Salzberg had been covering this issue at Global Voices blog in the past:
Japan: Economics of the “Illegal” Download
Japan: The Illegal Download Explained, on 2-Channel
2) Search engine cache (and data backup cache, streaming cache) will be LEGAL after the bill is put into effect.
Search engine caches were considered illegal in the Japanese copyright law, as "copying copyrighted contents without permission from the copyright holder is illegal" and "search engine caches are copying copyrighted materials" (and there is no way search engine companies can get permission of each and every content they index, moreover there is no fair use in Japan). Therefore search engines in Japan such as Google and Yahoo inevitably kept their servers outside of Japan.
After next January, Japanese search engines can legally build their cache servers in Japan.
Other clauses include: selling pirated DVDs in the internet auctions knowing it is illegal product will be punished (5 years in prison or penalty under 5 million yen), electronic archives of books in the National Diet Library, a system to reuse contents whose authors are unclear, etc.
======================================================================
UPDATE October, 2012
3 years have passed since I wrote this article and there are a bunch of updates, but I'm sure you are interested in the copyright law amendment that took place on October 1st, 2012.
The law penalizes people who knowingly download illegally uploaded music or movie files. When music or video is sold or is getting paid-distribution online, and if you knew those contents are distributed illegally, and you downloaded those illegal contents from the internet, you are subject to punishment.
High level summary:
- Uploading illegal contents online had been illegal from before, and the punishment was maximum of 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to 10 million yen.
- From 2010/1/1, downloading illegal contents online became illegal without punishment. Despite this law, many people download illegal contents, and the copyright amendment bill passed in June 2012.
- From 2012/10/1, even if it is for your personal use, 1) if the contents is sold or is getting paid-distribution online 2) you knew those contents are distributed illegally 3) you downloaded those illegal contents from the internet, you are subject to punishment- maximum of 2 years in prison and/or a fine of up to 2 million yen.
- From 2012/10/1, ripping DVD contents with copy protect functions will be illegal without punishment, even if it is ripped for your personal use. Creating or giving programs that enables to break those copy protection function will be illegal and is subject to punishment- maximum of 3 years in prison and/or a fine of up to 3 million yen. (Most music CDs do not have copy protect function, so as long as it is personal use, copying music from CD to your personal computers or personal music player are generally not illegal.
- In the past, when famous characters happened to be in the background of photos uploaded to blogs etc, it was illegal. The new amendment will make this legal from 2013/1/1.
- From 2013/1/1, the National Diet Library will be able to electronically distribute out-of-print books to public libraries nationwide.
Resources and links:
Government's PR site [ja]
Website of Agency for Cultural Affairs on this copyright amendment [ja]
Amendment bill (summary) [ja]
Amendment bill [ja]
Amendment bill (comparison of the old and new bill) [ja]
Japan Times: Copyright law with teeth leaves download masses puzzled
Q&A from website of Agency for Cultural Affairs:
Q – Is it illegal to view illegal contents online?
A – Viewing illegal video or listening to illegal music is not online, unless you record the contents.
Q – Is it illegal to view contents on video sharing sites like YouTube since it creates cache?
A – No, caching made from viewing videos of video sharing sites are not illegal.
Q – Is it illegal to download online photos or copy and paste test for my private use?
A – No, downloading online photos or copy and pasting text is not illegal as long as it is for private use. Downloading music and video is illegal.
Q – Is it illegal to download online illegal TV dramas that are broadcasted on TVs for free?
A – Even if TV programs were broadcasted for free, it is illegal download the contents if you knew it was illegal distribution. Moreover, if that TV program is sold (either as DVD or online), if you download knowing both the fact that it is sold product as well as illegal, you are subject to punishment.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi YamazakiOn 6/12 the amendment bill for the Japanese copyright law passed the Diet and in January 2010, the amendments will be put into effect. You can read the whole amendment documents here [ja].
There are several clauses, but the 2 big issues are "illegal download" and "search engine cache issue".
1) DOWNLOADING illegal contents will be ILLEGAL
UPLOADING illegal contents to the internet is illegal even now (and many people including Mr. Kaneko the creator of P2P software Winny had been arrested), but the new amendment will outlaw individuals who DOWNLOAD contents if they knew it is illegal contents.
There had been lots of debate on this topic- as this issue inherently has various problems such as "How do you prove you actually knew it was illegal?" "The way internet works is that if you are viewing some website, you are actually downloading it even if you are not pressing a download button or anything." There were strong oppositions against this bill, and I wrote last year about a Japanese Internet activist group MIAU and their activities against this bill. After a long debate, the way this ended up is that although downloading illegal contents is going to be illegal, there is no punishment clause on this (and that is why the efficacy of this law is questioned). Streaming is not covered in this bill, and just looking at illegal videos on YouTube and Nico Nico Douga will not be illegal either.
Chris Salzberg had been covering this issue at Global Voices blog in the past:
Japan: Economics of the “Illegal” Download
Japan: The Illegal Download Explained, on 2-Channel
2) Search engine cache (and data backup cache, streaming cache) will be LEGAL after the bill is put into effect.
Search engine caches were considered illegal in the Japanese copyright law, as "copying copyrighted contents without permission from the copyright holder is illegal" and "search engine caches are copying copyrighted materials" (and there is no way search engine companies can get permission of each and every content they index, moreover there is no fair use in Japan). Therefore search engines in Japan such as Google and Yahoo inevitably kept their servers outside of Japan.
After next January, Japanese search engines can legally build their cache servers in Japan.
Other clauses include: selling pirated DVDs in the internet auctions knowing it is illegal product will be punished (5 years in prison or penalty under 5 million yen), electronic archives of books in the National Diet Library, a system to reuse contents whose authors are unclear, etc.
======================================================================
UPDATE October, 2012
3 years have passed since I wrote this article and there are a bunch of updates, but I'm sure you are interested in the copyright law amendment that took place on October 1st, 2012.
The law penalizes people who knowingly download illegally uploaded music or movie files. When music or video is sold or is getting paid-distribution online, and if you knew those contents are distributed illegally, and you downloaded those illegal contents from the internet, you are subject to punishment.
High level summary:
- Uploading illegal contents online had been illegal from before, and the punishment was maximum of 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to 10 million yen.
- From 2010/1/1, downloading illegal contents online became illegal without punishment. Despite this law, many people download illegal contents, and the copyright amendment bill passed in June 2012.
- From 2012/10/1, even if it is for your personal use, 1) if the contents is sold or is getting paid-distribution online 2) you knew those contents are distributed illegally 3) you downloaded those illegal contents from the internet, you are subject to punishment- maximum of 2 years in prison and/or a fine of up to 2 million yen.
- From 2012/10/1, ripping DVD contents with copy protect functions will be illegal without punishment, even if it is ripped for your personal use. Creating or giving programs that enables to break those copy protection function will be illegal and is subject to punishment- maximum of 3 years in prison and/or a fine of up to 3 million yen. (Most music CDs do not have copy protect function, so as long as it is personal use, copying music from CD to your personal computers or personal music player are generally not illegal.
- In the past, when famous characters happened to be in the background of photos uploaded to blogs etc, it was illegal. The new amendment will make this legal from 2013/1/1.
- From 2013/1/1, the National Diet Library will be able to electronically distribute out-of-print books to public libraries nationwide.
Resources and links:
Government's PR site [ja]
Website of Agency for Cultural Affairs on this copyright amendment [ja]
Amendment bill (summary) [ja]
Amendment bill [ja]
Amendment bill (comparison of the old and new bill) [ja]
Japan Times: Copyright law with teeth leaves download masses puzzled
Q&A from website of Agency for Cultural Affairs:
Q – Is it illegal to view illegal contents online?
A – Viewing illegal video or listening to illegal music is not online, unless you record the contents.
Q – Is it illegal to view contents on video sharing sites like YouTube since it creates cache?
A – No, caching made from viewing videos of video sharing sites are not illegal.
Q – Is it illegal to download online photos or copy and paste test for my private use?
A – No, downloading online photos or copy and pasting text is not illegal as long as it is for private use. Downloading music and video is illegal.
Q – Is it illegal to download online illegal TV dramas that are broadcasted on TVs for free?
A – Even if TV programs were broadcasted for free, it is illegal download the contents if you knew it was illegal distribution. Moreover, if that TV program is sold (either as DVD or online), if you download knowing both the fact that it is sold product as well as illegal, you are subject to punishment.
17 件のコメント:
Sounds very scary from the country of NHK and JASRAC. Should we move to Dubai with Joi? Or will it be OK if we just keep hosting contents elsewhere?
but the new amendment will outlaw individuals who DOWNLOAD contents if they knew it is illegal contents....
SO I can always say: "what? I didn't know it was illegal!" and that would save me from prison and the fine? lol
Thanks for your comment, Ale.
The reason people got freaked out and there were 7,500 "public comments" (which is extraordinarily many numbers for public comments) sent to the Ministry of Culture and 80% of them were against this bill- was because it sounded really scary from normal internet users' point of view.
And after the long debate, despite downloading illegal contents became illegal, "there is no punishment clause on this (and that is why the efficacy of this law is questioned)". You won't get arrested or fined (unless you upload illegal content- but that was illegal even before this amendment).
That is why we are not running out of this country :P
Thanks for your comment, Pau.
Yes you can say that, but even if you download illegal contents, you will not be imprisoned nor fined as there is no punishment clause for this.
Maybe I should highlight that in my post :)
Hi Michael,
I'd be happy to comment if your article is relevant to what my expertise is :) I'm sorry about the last one- I don't have 1GB internet connection at my house.
How is "uploading" defined?
Referring to torrent clients such as uTorernt or BitTorent; Would "Seeding" the downloaded (leeched) torrent file(s) after download fall under the definition of "uploading" by law?
Or is the legislation specifically defining "uploading" as the act of uploading the INITIAL file(s) to a site for other users to download?
Hi GE, thanks for your comment.
Definition of "uploading" was actually discussed in the committees of Ministry of Culture.
"Illegal uploading" is already criminal in the current law, and Bit Torrent's seeding was defined as uploading and illegal, although risks of being arrested is small.
Cache files were considered "temporary copy" and is excluded, streaming is excluded too.
I know this is a little bit off the subject of your post, but do you know if it is illegal to put clips of Japanese videos streamed on a blog website? I was planning on making a blog that focuses on this and wanted to make sure that this is ok before I started. Here's an example of what I'm talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne01XY7mjE4 thanks!
Hi uglijimus,
It is not illegal to put legal clips of Japanese video, but you should not put illegal clips such as illegal TV show clips you mentioned.
It is said to be in the grey zone- there is very very low probability of actually getting arrested, but for example this lawyer is saying linking to illegal video clips is illegal. http://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/0610/27/news029.html
That's too bad that Japan has such strict copyright laws. I'm sure there are many people around the world who cannot speak Japanese who are interested in Japanese culture who could get some insight into it through TV. Hopefully Japan will change in the future.
uglijimus, one thing is about the copyright law amendment. The other is about the industry perception change.
As for the latter, it affects what is legal and illegal. If TV stations start to consider providing clips online, those are not illegal contents and people around the world would be able to enjoy them. For example, NHK- the national TV channel has a YouTube channel and uploading some of their contents- although most of them are really short clips. http://www.youtube.com/user/NHKonline
In order for the TV stations to upload their contents online, they need to think of business models. If it make sense for them to put them online and make money out of it, they will. If it is just putting things online and being exploited, they won't.
Hi. I am curious, streaming was not mentioned, so therefore If I have a streaming online radio show where I play Japanese music for people outside Japan, It would be ok? But f I upload copies of the show to a web server so people can listen to it later (podcast) its not ok?
also how do they intend to track your downloads, If i use private trackers and such who will know exactly what I download... surely that borders on invasion of privacy?
I suppose at the very worst Japan cuts its media off from the world and prevents circulation in the country, the record sales wont rise because they are 2 times the price as the rest of the world, people will just go to Tsutaya and rip it off there.
Hi Daruku-sensei,
According to Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Bunkacho), "streaming such as YouTube is NOT included as it is regarded not to be downloading".
http://internet.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/news/2007/09/26/16991.html
Whereas various people were saying watching YouTube videos involves downloading so the ministry is not knowledgeable.
http://gigazine.net/index.php?/news/comments/20070927_youtube_download_streaming/
But anyways, as long as the ministry in charge of this is saying it is OK, it SHOULD be OK. Again, this is about the audience listening/watching the contents.
If you are UPLOADING illegal content, (as you say- YOU are streaming online radio show) it is NOT ok. Uploading was and will always be illegal. This law is about illegalizing EVEN downloading, which is why lots of people were opposing to it.
I think there is a very low likelihood of users (audience who are downloading) getting arrested by this law. It is more for prevention.
Uploading is a different matter. There already have been lots of arrests of people uploading illegal contents via Winny etc.
Remember- I wrote on this post that the police came to a house of a blogger who wrote on her blog that she will commit suicide (though she wasn't really serious). Police CAN get necessary information from the ISPs.
http://fumijp.blogspot.com/2009/05/akihabara-incident-and-its-aftermath.html
Record sales issue- I agree. I visited Chile last month and met a girl who buys all of the L'arc en Ciel's albums and goodies and stuff because she came to know about the artist via illegal anime video. Without it, she wouldn't have even known about the artist.
Some Japanese companies understands this logic and they are uploading their contents officially, but they are not majority- yet.
Is bit torrent safe? User usually download before buying them, and download drama because they have no recorder.
Orcaz,
As long as you are doing something illegal, you are not "safe".
BitTorrent uploaders are getting arrested all around the world.
Arrest in UK
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/02/onk_further_arrests/
Arrest in Spain
http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-sites-shut-down-admins-arrested/
Arrest in HongKong
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/Hong-Kong-court-rejects-appeal-over-Internet-piracy-case/2006/12/12/1165685681335.html
etc
The risk of being arrested for downloading something via BitTorrent is extremely low, but it is 1) illegal at least in Japan and 2) the risk is not zero.
Hi, I know it's been nearly three years since you reported on this, but I was wondering what affect the changes to Japan's copyright laws has had on things like doujinshi, fan fiction and fan art.
CynFinnegan,
I don't think so. This amendment was not targeting fan fiction and fan art, downloading of illegal contents. Moreover, they didn't have punishments.
コメントを投稿